The present invention relates to a system and method that facilitate development of computer games and more particularly, a system and method that facilitate development of computer games that include representations of actual real world geographic areas, such as the road networks in the geographic areas.
Computer games have developed in sophistication and commercial importance. Improvements in computer hardware and software have enabled computer games to provide realistic graphics and sound. With these advances, computer game users have come to expect that games meet high standards for richness and attention to detail. For computer games that are intended to represent real world places, such as road race games, users expect the games to provide convincing depictions of the real world, with attention to accuracy and detail.
Computer game developers have recognized the need to provide realistic depictions of actual real world places in computer games. This has placed a burden on computer game developers to obtain the data needed to portray geographic places with realistic detail and accuracy. The collection of such detailed geographic data about real world roads, places, etc., is time-consuming and expensive. Further, the collection of detailed real world data diverts the resources of computer game developers away from other important aspects of computer game creation, such as characters, story lines, and strategies. Thus, there exists a need to facilitate the collection and use of geographic data by game developers.
Another consideration related to the development of computer games that depict real world places relates to providing a variety of different locales. Even if a computer game developer collects all the data needed to depict a particular real world locale (such as a city) with the richness and detail expected by game players, the game play scenario is limited to only that particular locale. This may limit the appeal of the computer game. Therefore, it may be advantageous for a computer game developer to provide games that depict a variety of different real world locales. However, if a computer game developer wants to provide a game with different real world locales, the developer is required to collect geographic data for each different locale, thus incurring further considerable expense.
Accordingly, it is an objective to provide a way to make computer games that represent actual physical places.
It is another objective to facilitate the representation of actual physical places in a computer game.